GATHERING OF THE ELECT (Part 9)

GATHERING OF THE ELECT (Part 9)

KENUTE P. CURRY

And the Word of the LORD came to me…….

“Immediately after the tribulation of those days … He will send out His angels with a loud trumpet, and they will gather His elect from the four winds,  from one end of the sky to the other” (Matt 24:29, 31). Jesus used the language of Isaiah 11 to describe the gathering of the elect, an obvious reference to the Jews. He will - “gather the dispersed of Israel; He will collect the scattered of Judah from the four corners of the earth” (Isaiah 11:12). The gathering of the Jews is further predicted in Isaiah 43:5, 54:7; Zechariah 2:6. The gathering of the elect in Matthew 24:31 is not the church; but the gathering of the Jews after the 7-Year Tribulation.

The strongest evidence we have for a pretribulation rapture comes to us from the familiar passage in 1 Thessalonians 4:16-18; 5: 1-2; which speaks of the rapture followed by the Day of the LORD, closely paralleling the book of Isaiah. Both passages have the same order of events:

1. The dead rise first.

2. The living goes away, hidden behind a door.

3. The LORD comes to punish the world.

“Your dead will live; their bodies will rise. Awake and sing, you who dwell in the dust! For you will be covered with the morning dew, and the earth will bring out the departed spirits. Go, my people (Israel), enter your rooms and close your doors behind you. Hide for a little while until the wrath (Great Tribulation-last 3½ years) has passed. For look, the Lord is coming from His place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity. The earth will reveal the blood shed on it and will no longer conceal her slain” (Isaiah 26:19-21).

There is a rapture of those who believe in Jesus. Discovering that the elect in Matthew 24:31 is not the rapture of the Gentile Church does not invalidate the pretribulation rapture. It simply demonstrates that God has a bigger plan for the Jews, who are His elect.

This is the Word of the LORD!

© 2015 Kenute P. Curry.  All rights reserved.